Señora Sabasa Garcia
Francisco Goyac. 1806/1811
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
The years between Goya's appointment as first painter to the court of Charles IV and the Napoleonic invasion of 1808 were a time of great activity and financial security for the artist. He painted some of his finest portraits at that time, _Señora Sabasa García_ and several others in the National Gallery's collection among them.
In contrast with his earlier work _--#The Marquesa de Pontejos_, for example -- Goya dispensed with the setting entirely and treated the costume much more impressionistically. Eliminating unessential details, he gave life to the figure with the greatest technical economy, his vibrant brushwork merely suggesting the gossamer qualities of the señora's mantilla rather than defining its details.
Señora Sabasa García was the niece of Evaristo Pérez de Castro, Spain's minister of foreign affairs, for whom Goya was painting an official portrait when, according to a perhaps legendary anecdote, the young woman appeared. The artist, struck by her beauty, stopped work and asked permission to paint her portrait. With images like this, spotlighting the restrained fire and beauty of the subject, Goya created the visual vocabulary that embodies the words "Spanish beauty," just as his earlier tapestry cartoons and genre paintings of popular pastimes distilled the essence of Spanish life.
More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication _Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries_, which is available as a free PDF <u>https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/spanish-painting-15th-19th-centuries.pdf</u>
- Title: Señora Sabasa Garcia
- Creator: Francisco Goya
- Date Created: c. 1806/1811
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 71 x 58 cm (27 15/16 x 22 13/16 in.) framed: 94.6 x 81.3 x 7.6 cm (37 1/4 x 32 x 3 in.)
- Provenance: The sitter [b. 1790] until her death;[1] by inheritance to her goddaughter, Mariana García Soler, Madrid;[2] after her death, sold by her husband Dr. Sota to Don José Joaquin Herrero, Madrid;[3] Dr. James Simon [1851-1932], Berlin, by 1908;[4] Count Paalen, Berlin; Heinrich Sklarz, Berlin, by 1923;[5] (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[6] purchased 21 February 1930 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA. [1] J. Valverde Madrid, "El Retrato de doña Sabasa García por Goya," _Goya_ no. 177 (1983): 109. [2] Elizabeth du Gué Trapier, _Goya and His Sitters_, New York, 1964: 55, no. 59; Valverde Madrid 1983, 108-109. The provenance card (in NGA curatorial files) for Herrero calls him Don José Juan (rather than Joaquin) Herrero. [3] Detlev Freiherrn von Hadeln, "Die Porträtausstellung des Kaiser Friedrich Museens Verein," _Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte_ 44 (1908-1909): 203, repro. 197. For more information about Simon, see Wilhelm Bode's introduction to _Collection Dr. James Simon de Berlin: Catalogue des tableaux, miniatures, bronzes, sculptures, ivoires, cires, bijoux, objets de vitrine, tapis, tapisseries, étoffes, et meubles_, Frederik Muller et Cie, Amsterdam, 25-26 October 1927). [4] August L. Mayer, _Francisco de Goya_, Munich, 1923: 206, no. 499. [5] _Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America_, New York, 1941: 235. [6] David Finley notebook, in NGA Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: oil on canvas
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